Political
a
hk
The
Situation
Decisions on the local level are made by the council of
Pamily heads and
other males.
The council
Magistrate Juds,
who is also tne
senior male
group according to the traditional
the local chiefs (iroij),
is headed by
system,
or Bikini.
ofr the Bikini
He
is the heir of
The Bikini people were
also traditionally subjects of a paramount chief (iroij lablab),
wnose ancestor had
paramount chiefs
only visited
Subjects.
tion was
conquered Bikini over a
of Bikini had
century ago.
never lived
on the atoll but
it from time to time to collect tribute
A percentage of
the
people,
from the paramount
cash proceeds from copra produc-
in effect,
chief
declared
their independence
shortly after their move from Bikini.
They rejected him completely and declared that
Government
was
titie holder,
their paramount
chief,
for the past twenty years.
that
and
whom they complained had
help them, but only exploited them.
found
from their
collected during the Japanese period.
The Bikini
I
The
not
the U.S.
the absentee
never done anything to
This hae been the theme
On my last trip to the Marshalls
this attitude has
not
changed.
They want
nothing
to do with Iroij Lejol8H Kabua who holds the paramount chief's
rights
custom.
to Bikini according to the traditional Marshallese
The attitude of rejection and
their leader and
more
refusal
spokeaman has hardened,
than twenty years of
independence.
Le jol 84 continues to maintain his
yma 5.009087
to accept him as
if anything,
As I
arter
understand
claim to nis hereditary
it,
rights